Russia names banned U.S. chicken plants, warns 22 Tyson plants

Russian will begin its ban of imports from 19 U.S. poultry plants on Sept. 1, Russia's animal and plant health regulatory agency Rosselkhoznadzor announced Friday, according to media reports.

Rosselkhoznadzor identified the banned plants by supplier number. According to a list of those numbers published by Reuters, the ban applies to the following plants:

Butterball, LLC in Carthage, Mo.
Case Farms of North Carolina in Dudley, N.C.
Choctaw Maid Farms in Forest, Miss.
Farbest Foods in Huntingburg, Ind.
House of Raeford Farms in Raeford, N.C.
Jennie-O Turkey Store in Barron, Wis.
Mountainaire Farms in Selbyville, Del.
Mountainaire Farms of Delaware in Millsboro, Del.
New Oxford Foods in New Oxford, Pa.
Peco Foods in Bay Springs, Miss.
Peco Foods in Sebastopol, Miss.
Peterson Farms in Decatur, Ark.
Sanderson Farms in Hazlehurst, Miss.
Sanderson Farms in Collins, Miss.
Simmons Foods in Soutwest City, Mo.
Simmons Foods in Siloam Springs, Ark.
Tyson Foods in Carthage, Miss.
Tyson Foods in Clarkesville, Ark.
Wayne Farms in Laurel, Miss.

"Joint Russian-U.S. inspections of U.S. poultry processing plants at the end of July and the beginning of August showed a number of inspected plants do not fully observe the agreed standards," Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement. "The inspection showed that many plants have not taken steps to eliminate faults discovered by previous inspections."

22 Tyson plants warned

Rosselkhoznadzor said its inspectors had not been allowed to visit some poultry farms and had not received results of a probe into a possible excess of arsenic in some U.S. poultry supplied to Russia, according to Reuters. Rosselkhoznadzor said it wanted these results within one month.

"A timely reception of this information by Rosselkhoznadzor will prevent the imposition of restrictions on poultry imports to Russia for 22 plants belonging to Tyson Foods, four plants of Peco Foods and three plants of the Equity Group," the agency said, referring to the 29 plants Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday would receive warnings. (See Putin says Russia will ban imports from 19 U.S. chicken plants on Meatingplace.com, August 29, 2008.)